Federal Workers Feeling Letdown Over Shutdown

November 14, 1995|By KEN BAKER Daily Press

The prospect of today's government shutdown had some Peninsula workers on Monday feeling like human roadkill in a political game of chicken, cannon fodder in a shooting match between Congress and President Clinton and, well, just plain upset.

"The feeling in general is disappointment," said NASA Langley Research Center technician Phil Gaude. "We at NASA would just like to see them do their job."

NASA engineer Denise Jones sat at her desk and issued Clinton and members of Congress a message of her own: "Get your act together."

"I think it's kind of bad that they can't pass a budget," she added.

A furlough could amount to a paid vacation for the nation's 800,000 "nonessential" federal workers, since GOP leaders have promised - though they haven't guaranteed - to pay furloughed workers retroactively.

Still, many members of the Peninsula's 18,000-member federal civilian work force voiced dissatisfaction with the political brinkmanship that has left them uncertain.

The local impact of a government shutdown perhaps would be most dramatic at NASA, where all but 15 of the research center's 2,500 civilian workers could be sent home today.

Thousands of other federal civilian workers throughout Hampton Roads also face a furlough.

As many as 24,000 employees at Norfolk Naval Base and the 4,000 civilian workers at Fort Monroe and Fort Eustis also could be sent home by their supervisors.

And about 80 employees - mostly part-time and temporary workers - at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Hampton face a layoff, said Jenny Tankersley, spokeswoman for the medical center.

But Tankersley said that "any veteran who presents himself or herself at the medical center should not notice a difference in the way we operate, because we are not to furlough anyone who could affect the patient's care."

Although veterans may not feel the hit, a prolonged federal shutdown beyond a few days would create "a complete catastrophe" for federal workers, said Eric Rosen, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based American Federation of Government Employees.

"You are going to be looking at government offices that aren't going to provide services to people across the country," said Rosen, whose union represents 700,000 of the nation's 2.1 million federal employees. There are 167,735 federal workers in Virginia.

"And when these people do return to work, the workload is going to be unbearable," Rosen said.

As a result, furloughed workers should be compensated for any time they miss, he added.

"They want to get paid to do their job," Rosen said. "And it appears Congress is getting paid to NOT do their job."

Federal officials asked all government employees to report to work this morning even though last-minute negotiations between Clinton and GOP leaders failed to end the budget impasse by midnight Monday.

Most laid-off workers will be asked to leave their workplace within three hours of their start time, according to the federal directive.

Ken Martin, a Fort Eustis employee who has spent 28 years as a government worker and has endured nine federal budget battles since 1981, isn't too worried about being furloughed.

"So what's the big deal? My sense is that we've been through this before," said Martin, chief of targetry for the Army Training Support Center at Fort Eustis. "I would suspect that somewhere along the line they'll find a resolution."

In addition to 15 civil service employees, anywhere from 12 to 24 private contractors who work on the NASA campus and most off-site contracting firms would work in the event of shutdown, NASA spokesman Keith Henry said.